Drama Over Time

Drama is a form of literature that is usually represented in theater performances by actors on a stage. Dramatic literature is mostly created as to be sustained on a stage and has its origins in early Greek ages. It is neither a tragedy nor is it a comedy when it comes to plays and in theater it usually refers to 19th century type plays.

The classical Athenian drama, which was the first form ever created contained tragedy, comedy and satyrs. Actors used to impersonate specific characters and speak as if they were not that person, but someone else about that character. In those days drama was a major type of entertainment and actual records exist of competitions between drama writers of the time.

In the age of when the Roman Empire came to power, they took the original Greek drama and improved it, making it more sophisticated and rich. However the interest of the people for drama diminished due to the rise of other forms of theater. The Medieval Ages brought even more developments to the genre and the English Renaissance theater came with such playwrights as Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Middleton.

Modern and postmodern dramatists Henrik Ibsen and Bertolt Brecht defined the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively by introducing new elements in drama like social critique, meta-theatricality or experimentation.

With so many centuries and influences to drama, a few drama forms remained constant in style: opera, pantomime and creative drama. Opera is a very rich form of drama that has its roots in Greek traditional theater, combining acting with singing. Many changes have been made to opera over the years, but artistic value has never lowered. Pantomime is created like a folk story or fable, where a hero or heroine is followed from beginning to end, in different moral dilemmas, but manage to bring a solution and a lesson is learned.